Palace monitoring situation in Thailand

ABS-CBN News

MANILA -- Malacanang is monitoring the situation in Thailand but noted that there is no reason for Filipinos there to start worrying.

In an interview with radio dzRB, Secretary Herminio Coloma of the Presidential Communications Operations Office said there are guidelines being followed by embassy officials in declaring alert levels in their respective jurisdictions.

On Sunday, Thai police fired tear gas and water cannons at protesters trying to force their way into Government House to overthrow Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, after violence in the capital left two dead and dozens wounded.

The bloodshed is the latest in a series of outbreaks of civil strife in the kingdom since royalist generals ousted billionaire tycoon-turned-premier Thaksin Shinawatra, Yingluck's brother, seven years ago.

The mass street rallies, aimed at replacing Yingluck's government with an unelected "people's council," are the biggest since political violence in Bangkok three years ago left dozens dead in a military crackdown. – with Agence France-Presse